by D J DuMont
Willow’s Perfect Storm
The Dragon Heart Academy of Magic, Book 3
By D.J. DuMont
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Similarities to actual people or events are entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by D.J. DuMont. All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Thank You For Reading!
About the Author
Chapter One
Whoosh. The sound of the broomstick rushing by Willow’s ear registered a split second before a gush of cold liquid hit her face. She shrieked, momentarily blinded by the impact of the liquid, and then wiped at her eyes to see who was responsible for breaking her reverie.
“Hey!” she shouted after Locke Nash’s retreating figure.
Locke, one of her fellow Dragon Heart Academy of Magic Students, and also one of the haughtiest people she knew, was zooming away on a broomstick that hovered a few feet above the perfect white sands of the beach. Until a few moments ago, Willow had been enjoying peace and quiet on that beach.
“Look alive, Willow,” Locke said, spinning his broomstick around so that he was facing her once again. “You never know when danger might arise. It’s best to be prepared and alert instead of sleeping your day away.”
Willow sat up and scowled at him, but he didn’t notice. He was too busy laughing at her, and she decided in that moment that he was right. It was time to look alive, and show him how she dealt with unexpected assaults. She raised her right hand, pointing her brilliant, amethyst magic ring in his direction, and shouted out, “Tempestas!”
Before Locke could react, a small cyclone of sand rose up directly beneath his broomstick. The force of the cyclone caught the thick wooden stick and immediately sent it spinning in a clockwise direction. Locke yelped as he teetered precariously back and forth, but before he could manage to regain his balance or cast a counter spell, he went tumbling from the broomstick. A loud thud rang out as he collided with the sand below him, and when he sat up again he was covered in sand the same way a sugar cookie might be covered in sugar crystals.
Willow smirked with satisfaction. “Look alive, Locke.”
He screamed out a string of angry insults in her direction, but she could barely hear him over the sound of loud laughter behind her. She turned to see the other two Dragon Heart students, Sylvie Asher and Cara Moss, heading in her direction. They had seen the whole thing, which only made her momentary triumph over Locke even more satisfying.
Cara was also flying on a broomstick, and cradling a volleyball in one arm. When Locke climbed on his broomstick again and started flying in Willow’s direction with a murderous look in his eye, Cara waved him off.
“Let it go, Locke. Spiteful isn’t a good look for you, and besides, I want to get this game going. It’s our last night on the island. Don’t waste it on juvenile attempts at trying to one-up Willow on magical abilities.”
To Willow’s surprise, Locke actually listened to Cara. Giving Willow one last, angry glare, he spun his broomstick around and headed toward the beach volleyball net that was located a short distance away. Willow let out a sigh of relief as she watched him go, then smiled as Sylvie sat down in the empty beach chair next to her. Sylvie was more tanned than Willow had ever seen her, which wasn’t that surprising since they’d spent the whole summer on a private Caribbean island. Even Willow’s normally pasty skin was glowing golden from months of sunshine.
“It’s gonna be hard to leave this place and head back to cold Maine winters,” Willow said with a sigh as Sylvie handed her a glass of Snapdragon Sap. Sylvie had put a little umbrella and a slice of pineapple in the drink to make it look like an actual cocktail, and Willow smiled again as she took a sip of the sweet juice. Snapdragon Sap was a specialty drink infused with magical qualities, and it was well-known in magical circles for its ability to keep one’s bones and joints strong. It didn’t taste like a health food drink, though. Willow considered it the most delicious juice she’d ever tried.
Sylvie took a long sip of her own Snapdragon Sap before replying. “It’s definitely going to be difficult to go back to Maine. Don’t get me wrong, Birch Point is beautiful in its own way. But how can anything compare to this?”
She swept her hand across the view in front of them, and Willow took it all in, trying to memorize the way every last palm tree and stretch of sand looked in the fiery-orange light of the setting sun. She could hardly believe that she’d been lucky enough to spend her summer here, improving her magical abilities while enjoying the near perfection of this tropical paradise.
“Who knew the CIA had a private island in the Caribbean?” Willow mused, shaking her head at the strangeness of it all. The island was not far from the U.S. Virgin Islands, but was carefully hidden under strong magical invisibility shields. The CIA used the island as a training ground for its most advanced Agents, but due to a series of events that had tangled Willow and her fellow Dragon Heart students up with Stein Viker, the most wanted, most dangerous of the CIA’s enemies, they had all spent summer break from school here. The seclusion had not only protected them, it had afforded them the opportunity to train with magical experts on magical techniques that were usually considered far too advanced for students like them, who had only completed two of the four years required to graduate from the Dragon Heart Academy of Magic.
“It’s strange, isn’t it?” Sylvie asked, breaking into Willow’s thoughts.
Willow glanced over at her. “What’s strange?”
Sylvie shrugged. “We’re essentially under ‘house arrest,’ you know? We were sent here so the CIA could keep a close watch on us, and we haven’t been able to go anywhere all summer except this island. But it hasn’t felt restrictive at all, because it’s such a beautiful island.”
“It is,” Willow agreed. “The only thing that maybe could have made it better would have been if Cara and Locke had been sent to a different island.”
Sylvie laughed at this. “Oh, come on. They’re not that bad.”
Willow glanced down the beach to where Locke and Cara were zooming around on their broomsticks, playing a magical version of beach volleyball. “Cara’s alright, I guess. But Locke has been insufferable.”
“I can’t argue with you on that,” Sylvie said. “He is a really talented wizard. I wish he would let his talents speak for themselves instead of running around acting like a jerk.”
Willow nodded as she took another sip of her Snapdragon Sap. Locke had taken every opportunity this summer to remind her of how his parents had come from a long line of Dragon Heart Agents, while she was basically a pedigree-less excuse for a wizard from a largely non-magical family. Locke had a knack for making her feel inferior, but she had a few trump
cards on him.
For one thing, Willow had discovered a few months ago that she had mental magic capabilities—which meant she had the powerful ability to perform magic spells without actually speaking the words of the spell. This type of magic was known to be extremely powerful, although it was also extremely hard to control. It was both a blessing and a curse for Willow, but she was the only living wizard with these abilities, and Locke couldn’t stand the fact that she possessed a power he would never have. Willow had had special tutoring sessions all summer long with a mental magic expert, and every time she caught Locke observing her during those lessons, his face had looked literally green with envy.
But her advantages over Locke didn’t end with her mental magic abilities. There was also the fact that her father, the only other wizard in her family as far as she knew, just so happened to be the most famous wizard of modern times. No matter how great Locke’s pedigree was, he had to accept that Willow was the progeny of the world’s most talented living wizard.
At least, everyone assumed her father was living. No one could say for sure, since he’d unfortunately been captured by Stein and had been missing for well over three years.
Willow’s heart tightened in her chest at the thought of her father. She could still see the headlines from the days after he went missing: “Sigmund Ember, Top CIA Agent, Missing and Presumed Dead.” Of course, none of the papers knew that he was a Dragon Heart Agent, or that such a thing even existed. The CIA did not want the general public learning of the existence of dragons or magic, and so the Dragon Heart Program was their most carefully guarded secret. Willow herself hadn’t known of the program when her father disappeared. But once she’d learned about who her father really was, and who she really was, she’d made it her mission to find out what had happened to the great Sigmund Ember.
It had been a long road, but Willow had finally proven that her father was still alive. At least, he had been alive as recently as a few months ago, when an S.O.S. signal he’d sent was discovered. But where he was now, or whether Stein had killed him off or not, was anyone’s guess. As beautiful as the CIA’s secret island was, and as wonderful as Willow’s summer there had been, she couldn’t shake the shadow that always followed her around—the shadow of her father’s memory, and of the belief she held deep in her heart that he was still alive, if only she could find him and rescue him.
But she’d already caused quite a bit of trouble in her two years as a Dragon Heart student. If she pushed the boundaries too much further in her fervor for finding her father, she would get herself expelled from the program. That would mean a memory wipe that would completely erase any knowledge she had of dragons, of magic, or of the fact that her father was still out there.
She couldn’t let that happen, and so she had fallen in line as much as she could over the past summer. She’d worked hard to improve her magical abilities, and to show the Dragon Heart Agency that she was a valuable asset they couldn’t afford to lose.
She could only hope that her upcoming third year at the Dragon Heart Academy would give her more opportunities to help continue the search for her father.
A loud crunching sound to Willow’s right drew her attention, and she looked over to see that her dragon, Cayenne, had arrived on the beach. Cayenne was joined by Sylvie’s dragon, Saffron, Cara’s dragon, Nutmeg, and Locke’s dragon, Yarrow. The four of them were attacking a small cluster of coconut palms, pulling the coconuts off the trees and downing them in one or two loud, crunching bites. Sylvie and Willow looked at each other, then back at the dragons, and then burst out laughing.
“I think the dragons might miss the island more than any of us once we leave,” Sylvie said.
Willow could only nod in agreement through her laughter. Dragons, strangely, had an insatiable love of coconuts. Back in Birch Point, Maine, where the dragons usually spent their days, coconuts had to be flown in. Sam, the master dragon trainer on campus, doled them out rather stingily, as special treats. But here on the island, the dragons could eat them anytime they wanted. They must have realized that tonight was their last night to indulge themselves, because they were going at those coconut palms like kids in a candy store.
“I hope they’re not going to give themselves stomachaches and be unable to fly tomorrow,” Willow mused.
“Pffft, dragons are tougher than that,” Sylvie replied. “A few extra coconuts aren’t going to keep them down. Besides, if we had to delay our departure from the island for another day, that wouldn’t be the worst thing ever, would it?”
“Good point.” Willow took a long sip of her Snapdragon Sap as the last orange-pink sunset ray disappeared, giving way to the dark navy blue of twilight. The moon was bright and the stars were starting to twinkle in the sky above her, and she knew she should go inside to start getting ready for bed. The journey back to Maine would start before the sun was up, and the students would be expected to ride their dragons hard until well after the sun had set. Staying up too late was a bad idea, and yet, Willow couldn’t tear herself away from the beach.
Everything felt too perfect and peaceful. Even Locke and Cara were adding to the joy of the moment, as their laughter drifted down the beach. Willow could almost forget how many problems waited for her out in the real world. Here, on the island, everything was perfect.
Until it wasn’t.
All of a sudden, her happy daydreams were interrupted by the sound of loud, almost inhuman screams. Startled, Willow sat straight up and looked around for the source of the screams. Her heart pounded as she hopped to her feet and raised her magic ring high, ready to fight whatever enemy was causing those unearthly screams. Despite Locke’s teasing earlier that Willow wasn’t prepared for battle, she was prepared. She and the other Dragon Heart students knew that an attack was possible at any moment, despite the magical shields and other protections that the senior Dragon Heart Agents had set up around the island. Beside Willow, Sylvie also stood and raised her magic ring. Cara and Locke had immediately dropped their beach volleyball game and sped over on their broomsticks so that all four Dragon Heart Students were standing united. Despite any differences the students might have in their day-to-day lives, they had learned early on that presenting a united front against any enemies was necessary for survival in the dangerous world of magical battles.
“What is that?” Cara asked, her voice squeaking nervously. “Or should I say, who is that?”
The dragons stopped their coconut-feasting and came to stand by the students, letting out a worried series of whines. The screaming came again, sounding a bit more humanlike this time. Willow felt a sick sense of dread rising within her. Those screams sounded oddly familiar.
“Should we head inside?” Cara asked.
Willow could hear the fear in Cara’s voice, and she’d by lying if she said there wasn’t fear trying to take root in her own heart. But she was much better at managing her fear than Cara was, and she held up a hand for everyone to be quiet.
“That voice sounds so familiar,” she said. The screams came again, sounding even more human than before. And then, to everyone’s shock, the screams started turning into intelligible words.
“Help me! Please, help me! Anyone! Don’t let him do this to me!”
Willow’s jaw dropped, as did her heart. “That’s my father!” she yelped.
In that instant, she saw tell-tale blue flashes of light high in the sky, followed by short bursts of orange light.
“It’s Stein!” Locke yelled. “Those orange bursts of light are the flames from the jetpacks he and his cronies ride on!”
“And that blue light!” Sylvie said, her voice shaking with rage. “He’s trying to attack the magic shield surrounding the island.”
“Help meeeeeeeee…” the pained voice yelled again from high above.
Willow felt her stomach turn. Her father was up there, crying for help! She had to go to him!
“Cayenne, let’s move!” she yelled, hopping onto her dragon’s back.
“Willo
w, what are you doing?” Sylvie asked, her eyes widening.
“What do you think I’m doing? That’s my father up there. I’m going to help him or die trying.”
“You’re not going alone,” Locke said with a growl, running to hop on Yarrow’s back. “If Stein is up there, then I’m not missing a chance to take him out.”
Before Sylvie or Cara could react, loud sirens started going off across the island. Willow had been expecting them, and yet she still felt her heart clench up with worry at the sound. When those emergency sirens went off, Willow and her fellow students were supposed to head immediately to the emergency bunkers. Heading up into the sky to fight Stein and rescue her father would be in direct defiance to standing orders, and was sure to land Willow in a ton of hot water.
Sylvie, Cara, and Locke all looked at Willow with questioning eyes, but there was never any real question as to what her decision would be. Everyone knew that Willow cared more about her father than anything. She could not give up a chance this good to save him, even if it meant risking expulsion from the Academy.
“I understand if you all don’t want to join me,” Willow said in a steely tone. “But I’m not leaving my father up there to suffer.”
“Are you kidding?” Sylvie asked, running to hop onto Saffron’s back. “Do you think I’m going to let you go up there on your own?”
Cara let out an exasperated sigh, but went to jump onto Nutmeg’s back. “I swear, Willow, you’re going to get all of us killed before we can even manage to graduate from the Academy.”
“No one’s getting killed tonight except Stein,” Locke said with a roar. “Let’s go get him!”
“Let’s!” Willow agreed, giving Cayenne a firm nudge. Her dragon flapped its giant wings, rising high into the sky and leaving the sound of the emergency sirens behind. Locke, Sylvie and Cara followed on their dragons, and the four students flew as fast as they could toward the mortal danger they were supposed to be avoiding at all costs.